Fresh from the news that Sarah Palin might be London-bound, the great and good of the right look to be gearing up for her autumnal arrival. It’s notable that today Dan Hannan has finally come round to the fact that he was way, way out with his endorsement of Barack Obama. The unlikely vocal advocate for the Democrat President is eating his words after witnessing a 30% increase in the size of the American state in just two years.

The full mea culpa is quite a read, bringing Hannan into line, entirely coincidentally, with a certain Obama-hating hockey-mum…

It’s hardly radical to suggest the Labour Leadership contest hasn’t set fire yet. A flutter of excitement on nomination day, but the long summer of hustings and a few beer and sandwich sessions doesn’t exactly make for cut-throat stuff. But could it be about to be blown open by a TV debate?

Another day and another hustings, only this time it won’t be a sympathetic audience of wonks and left-wing media. Tonight the five candidates will be grilled not only by Paxman, but an audience of former Labour, and floating voters. People who won’t want to talk about internal party politics or electoral reform, but their wallets, immigration and the harsh realities of the current economic crisis. The whole thing will be going out live on Newsnight.

The chances of one of them coming unstuck, one of them “doing a Clegg”, or a bun-fight, is greatly increased tonight by the fact people, real voters, will actually be watching. For most of the television audience it will be the first time they have seen the candidates lined up and ready to be judged. If this doesn’t liven up the race, what will?

Despite the protestations of the Labour leader candidates that the days of spin and backstabbing anonymous briefings are over, the memo clearly hasn’t reached all the campaign teams yet as someone has been having quite the chat with the Mail’s Andrew Pierce. Ed Balls’s time as a member of Oxford University Conservative Association hasn’t gone down too well with a backbench colleague who was quick to twist the knife:

‘It’s astonishing that any Labour leadership contenders could have even considered paying money to join a Tory association in the mid-1980s. It’s sickening as he was paying them subs when Mrs Thatcher was wreaking terrible destruction on constituencies in the North of England that he represents. No wonder he is airbrushing his past.’

Sounds a lot like a man often used for rent-a-quotes. The justification was so that Balls could hear the likes of Michael Heseltine doesn’t really wash. Being a closet member of Oxford or Cambridge Conservative Association never did Nick Clegg any harm, just look where it got him.

Chris Grayling, Minister for Employment said…

“Our job is to get as many young people, indeed people of all ages, as possible back into government- [ Interruption. ] I mean back into employment.”

A flurry of articles this morning have picked up on Sarah Palin’s very excitable Facebook declaration that she was coming to London meet “one of my political heroines, the “Iron Lady,” Margaret Thatcher.” The Guardian is predictably sneering. The Mail on Sunday had the scoop first and raised the question of whether Cameron would meet the former Vice-Presidential nominee and potential Presidential candidate of the American sister party.

In Downing Street you can imagine the battle lines being drawn already. This is the stuff that Steve Hilton’s nightmares are made of, yet Palin has an obvious glitzy appeal to the right of the party and tabloid media, something Andy Coulson will know instinctively. As PM it would be extremely discourteous for Dave not to meet and be photographed with Palin if she was in town, a coutesy British PMs have extended to lesser known American politicians. Guido’s transatlantic sources indicate that she could be over on this side of the pond in the Autumn, perhaps around the time of Conservative Party conference, just when Dan Hannan and Douglas Carswell will be launching their Direct Democracy version of the American Tea Party movement.

Another headache for the Cameroons will be what the Deputy Prime Minister has to say about all this, since Clegg was perhaps expecting to be invited to be the surprise speaker in Birmingham…

The businessmen-funded Policy Diffusion group is drawing their battle lines over the proposed rise in Capital Gains Tax. This followed Cable around yesterday:

“This LibDem policy fails on every conceivable account. It discriminates against elderly savers, reduces economic growth, prevents the build-up of capital, discourages entrepreneurs and will even reduce government revenue rather than increase it, widening the deficit.” Policy Diffusion fought viciously against a hung parliament in April and despite the resulting coalition, they are back. And this time they have trucks…